Recently by Richard Mooney

Written and directed by Richard Jobson
Starring Dougray Scott, Alistair McKenzie and James Anthony Pearson

Hidden gems are, I'm told, a very hard thing to find at film festivals. So being my first time at any sort of film festival I wasn't expecting to find any sort of gem at the Glasgow Film Festival last night. I didn't.

I found a Scottish diamond.

New Town Killers, due for general release in June, premiered at the Glasgow Film Theatre last night and was shown to a packed audience attending by invite-only.

Shot over a period of 5 weeks and costing around £600k to make, Richard Jobson's latest effort tells the story of the young, unemployed Sean McDonald (James Anthony Pearson) and his perilous attempts to get his sister Alice (Liz White) out of debt from the local Edinburgh mob.

Two private bankers (Scott and MacKenzie) offer Sean the chance to clear his sister's debt on the condition that he can hide from them for 12 hours. Sean accepts the offer and soon realises it's a tragic game of life and death that the bankers will stop at nothing to win.

Written before the credit crunch struck last year, the film's plot is an extreme parable of the world financial crisis- evil bankers picking off the poor one-by-one with the incentive of cash, simply because they can.

Dougray Scott's malevolent presence helps flow the film forward and in a style similar to Ledger's Joker, Scott's character is shown as unrestrained chaos.

James Anthony Pearson is great on screen and shows a whole other side of his talents with the some of the stunts he took part in.

The Filthy Tongues and the Flykillers (who scored the film) kept moving the film forward in it's excellent soundtrack.

However props must go to Jobson and his technical crew. They have managed to create magic on a shoe-string budget and a film that is certain to become a cult classic of Scottish Cinema.

A MOVIE about a comic book classic by the man who wrote The Dark Knight Returns, 300, co-directed Sin City and inspired Batman Begins?

Surely Zeus himself would shave his beard for a chance to see this!

But the truth is, it isn't great or even good for that fact. It's a convoluted mess of camp acting, boring brutality and tedious dialogue.

Based on the comic book by Will Eisner, The Spirit sees the hero of the same name (Gabriel Macht) in a battle to rid Central City of the criminal mastermid, Octopus (Samuel L Jackson). As the story unfolds it's revealed that they two actually share a hidden secret, which is key to both their powers.

It's a typical Frank Millar story- anti hero seeking redemption, lots of gritty undertones, a vigilante with a physcotic obsession over the protection of his city and lots of dames, with guns.

So cue 120 minutes of comic book mythology winks, lots of green screen action, a pair of Converse All Star Chucks, a cameo from "I'm the God damn, Batman" writer himself and Samuel L Jackson in a Nazi uniform, what do you have?

One of the biggest let downs in comic book movie history.

The film screams "I'm a comic book movie!" in your face and while it looks great, it does have an abundance of other problems that bring it down.

Is that it doesn't sound as half good as it looks. The acting is disjointed and the dialogue spoken awkwardly and amiss. The script would probably play out well if it was a graphic novel, not a full blown movie.

The stunning Eva Mendes puts in a decent performance as Sans Serif, while Sam Jackson is just weird as the Octopus and Gabriel Macht is allright in the film's lead role.

I have to say though that the biggest disappointment here is that, as a fan of Frank Millar's works, his solo directorial debut was overly hyped and ultimately a huge let down for everyone looking forward to this movie.

The Spirit is out on in Cinemas nationwide.

ADAM SANDLER stars as many different heroes in his new movie, Bedtime Stories, due out in cinemas on Boxing Day.

The Wedding Singer actor stars along side Kerri Russell (Wonder Woman, Scrubs), Lucy Lawless, Russell Brand and Guy Pearce, star of Christopher Nolan's Memento.

But they're not the only stars in this video feature, there's also the wide-eyed hamster 'Bugsy'.

Click on the video below to see interviews and clips from the upcoming movie.

Starring DiCaprio and Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott, you would assume that this film has all the makings of great movie.

And you would assume right, because it does.

The plot centres around DiCaprio's character, CIA Agent Roger Ferris's dealings with his handler, Ed Hoffman (Crowe) and their hunt for the elusive terrorist Al Salim.

Far aflung from your derived, standard terrorist plot, Ridley Scott takes the standard and turns it on its head showing modern covert war from the inside out.

The directing is spot-on with strong performances through-out.

Brutal, hard hitting and unlike any other spy film you'll see this year, Body of Lies is out in cinemas nationwide.

So it's the festive season and we've got a tonne of holiday movies coming out, mostly they're just the same old, tried garbage and nothing like the classics.

Four Christmases unfortunately falls into that category of tried garbage.

Starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, Four Christmases tells the story of a couple and their attempts to visit their divorced parents' four respective families on Christmas day.

They book a holiday and give phoney excuses for not being able to see their families on Christmas Day, however their flight gets cancelled and as luck would have it their families find out.

There is some laughs to be had, but the story in run-of-the mill and both actors seem out of place in this piece of badly written, poorly directed, Christmas cash-in.

Four Christmases is out in cinemas nationwide, but a movie like this is best left under the Hollywood tree.

Looking dead like Liar Liar, Yes Man stars Jim Carrey his typical rubber face comedy role.

(It's what he does best and you know it)

Check out the trailer below and comment.

Yes Man hits theatres on December 19, 2008. Yes it does, yes man, it does.

....sorry couldn't resist.

Sylar, beam me up.....

With George Takei trapped in the jungle and the wait being over and all that malarky, Star Trek has flew back into our solar systems for a franchise reboot.

Check out the new trailer below.

So what do you trekkies think?

Chris Pine or William Shatner?